Korean Food: Chapchae (Stir Fried Noodles) in celebration of Chuseok!

In celebration of a major Korean holiday tomorrow, Chuseok (or Choosuk), I am re-posting one of my favorite Korean dishes, Chapchae! Chuseok celebrates the end of the fall harvest season and a lot of Korean-Americans refer to this holiday as the “Korean Thanksgiving.”

I have been eating Chapchae for as long as I can remember. My mom has always made this for me and it wasn’t until late last year that I finally made this dish on my own. Like most Korean food, you’ll learn the measurements for ingredients and exactly what you like the more you cook and soon enough, you won’t even need the measuring spoons because you’ll just know.

Chapchae is probably one of the most popular noodle dishes in Korea. The foundation of the dish is the mixture of the noodles, soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil. . . YUM! Because mung bean or sweet potato noodles both absorb tons of flavor, you can mix and match the vegetables or meat to your liking. I used carrots, spinach, marinated beef*, orange/yellow bell peppers and onion in the recipe below. I think the flavor and color combination is absolutely wonderful! You can also try adding shiitake mushrooms too!

Click here to see my original post, where I show step-by-step photos on what to do.

This dish also works great with NO meat at all. . so you can go vegetarian too!

Author: Hip Foodie Mom

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Korean

Serves: 4-5

Ingredients

8 oz mung bean or sweet potato noodles (might be called cellophane or glass noodles or Chinese vermicelli; can be found at any Asian/Korean grocery store)

1 sweet onion, sliced into thin strips

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (or crushed garlic)

½ pound baby spinach, parboiled

2 carrots, julienned

Half yellow bell pepper, chopped (more to add color to the dish)

Half orange bell pepper, chopped

3 scallions, chopped

2 Tbsp vegetable or olive oil

2 Tbsp sesame oil

3-5 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

Sesame seeds (optional)

6 oz. beef or pork (optional)**

** Thinly sliced brisket works well in this dish and Korean barbecued beef (bulgogi) is used often. In a pinch, chunks of rotisserie chicken, strips of egg, or fried tofu pieces are good protein additions.

Instructions

*If you have the time, marinate your beef in some soy sauce and sesame oil. I marinated the meat in the morning before I left for work so the meat was marinating all day. Marinating the meat just makes it taste so much better.

Get all of your vegetables cut and ready to go

Boil the spinach just for 2-3 minutes, rinse, chop up and set aside

In a large pan or wok over medium heat, heat vegetable (or olive) oil and 1 Tbsp sesame oil.

Add onion slices and garlic and sauté for about 1 minute.

Add the rest of vegetables and cook for 4-6 minutes, until the vegetables are half-cooked and still a bit crispy.

In a separate pan, cook the beef. I prefer to do this separately to ensure all the meat gets cooked evenly.

Meet Alice

Hello! My name is Alice. Here, at Hip Foodie Mom, you will find fresh food recipes using local, seasonal ingredients. From meat dishes to vegetarian to Asian inspired dishes, you are sure to find something you like. Thank you for stopping by!